Saranac’s Black Forest is a nod to their founder’s homeland in the Black Forest region of Germany. Brewed as a Bavarian-style black lager, known as schwarzbier, Black Forest pours a very deep, dark brown with reddish highlights and a robust cap of light brown foam. Look for notes of rich caramel and toasty bread in the aroma, with a touch of Hallertauer noble hops to provide some classic Bavarian character including a fruity – almost lemony...

Pouring a bright golden hue with a cap of just-off-white foam, Peak Organic IPA looks good in the glass while also presenting quite an inviting aroma profile; look for piney, floral, and citric notes reminiscent of grapefruit and orange, with stone fruit and tropical overtones and a touch of mild caramel underneath it all. Dry-hopped with both Simcoe and Amarillo, this IPA is not shy on the palate either. A good backbone of pale malt and light...

Presenting a bright reddish-amber hue with crystal clarity, capped by plenty of persistent foam, this brew looks great in the glass. Brewed as an amber lager with a unique addition of coffee, Cold Brew certainly offers up unmistakable coffee notes in the aroma, backed up with mild underlying caramel. In the flavor department, we really enjoyed the coffee addition, which is certainly bold but not fatiguingly so – definitely not as overwhelming...

Peak’s Winter Session Ale pours a deep, dark, red-amber color topped by a head of persistent foam. Citra hops are often used to craft single-hop beers due to Citra’s ability to add firm bitterness thanks to its high alpha-acid content, as well as very bold and bright fruit aromas. This winter seasonal brew from Peak is a prime example, a real showcase for locally-grown Citra (with which the beer was also dry-hopped); bold hop aromas come forth...

Created in collaboration with the band moe., and featuring Mosaic hops (see what they did there?), Hoppy Hour Hero presents an inviting medium copper-amber color topped by a robust head of foam that laces the glass nicely as it recedes to a persistent collar. Being a double IPA, we of course expect very bold hop aromas from this brew, and we’re not disappointed. Atop an undercurrent of caramel, look for a complex hop profile including soft

Pouring a golden straw color with a light haze and a cap of crisp white foam, Fresh Cut represents Peak Organic’s foray into the American trend of taking traditional lager styles and overhauling them by amping up the bitterness a bit while using American hops, and lots of them, for a distinctly different character in the aroma and flavor. There’s also another trend currently towards more “sessionable”, lower-ABV IPAs, and Fresh Cut shares...

Pilsners are often not given enough respect because of the horrendously cheap imitations that have spread throughout the world like some kind of plague of poor taste. The Würzburger Pilsner, however, is an example of exactly how the style is supposed to be done. In fact, we feel this German-style pils (there are Czech-style pilsners as well) is a great example of why the style became so popular in the first place. On the pour, look for a...

This English-style porter, as expected, presents a very dark brown on the pour. When 961 founder Mazen Hajjar poured it for one neophyte Lebanese drinker used to Heineken-style lagers, the response was, “Did something go wrong?” Nope, that’s how it’s supposed to be! On the nose, expect the malts to take center stage with plenty of scorched caramel and some toasty bread crust leading into a bit of a smoky char character. We got some lightly..

This one’s a Rare Beer Club exclusive, specially allocated for our members. Aside from RBC members, the only other distribution point for this beer will be a very small number of cases sold through the Grand Teton tasting room. This is one of the finest beers we’ve sampled in the Grand Teton lineup: a wonderful expression of fruit and caramel and dense dark fruits. We’ve long been fans of Grand Teton’s Double Vision, the base beer for this...

We’ve enjoyed various vintage examples of Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux over the years, all of them still immensely generous, nearly regardless of age. Keep an eye on cellared bottles to make sure the dried-caramel character of oxidation isn’t building too much. For pairings, we can’t help but find its pepper, lean fruit and carbonation perfectly tuned to plump turkey and holiday fare. Pop ALBV bottles to ease winter along. Or set some down...